Through the Eyes of Others

by Margot Clark-Junkins

As is often the case, there is much to learn by viewing the world through the eyes of children. My Swedish nephews, 12 and 15 years old, were in town this summer and I wanted them to see the iconic Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. They agreed, after some arm-twisting from their doting parents.

Once inside, we all gazed upwards, like religious pilgrims newly arrived at the cathedral, taking in the amazing spiral which culminates in a web-like skylight. It is believed that architect Frank Lloyd Wright was inspired by a nautilus shell when he designed the building, which opened in 1959 and was recently named an UNESCO World Heritage site. “I believe in God,” Wright once said, “only I spell it Nature.”

We began to ascend the famed six-story ramp, swept up by a current of people who were streaming past 300 works of art. “Artistic License” is the Guggenheim Museum’s first artist-curated exhibition, and because it is their 60th anniversary, they went big, asking not one but 6 artists—Cai Guo-Qiang, Paul Chan, Jenny Holzer, Julie Mehretu, Richard Prince, and Carrie Mae Weems—to mine the permanent collection for works that met each artist’s particular interest or curatorial vision. Guggenheim Chief Curator Nancy Spector selected the artists, assigning each one a level of the museum and then setting them free. 

These are expensive times, and museums have found a measure of success by bringing in artists—who have star-power and their own following—to hand-pick their favorite works and generate an interesting show at a fairly low cost. 

One must stop—which is hard to do when a river of humanity is driving you forward—to really digest each exhibit. How has each artist differentiated his or her show? Why did they choose these works? What is the theme? How do the pieces look together?

I never told my nephews that my goal was to focus solely on female artists, particularly those of color. It is has been incontrovertibly documented that women—and women of color, in particular—have been and continue to be underrepresented in the art world, something that museums and galleries are trying to correct bit by bit. When Michelle Obama selected the artist Amy Sherald to paint her portrait (which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.), the ongoing effort was further energized. 

I led the way upstream, moving swiftly, jumping ahead to Carrie Mae Weems’ excellent exhibit, “What Could Have Been,” then Jenny Holzer’s aptly named “Good Artists.” The art they had chosen was so strong, so well placed, wide-ranging and diverting, by greats like Agnes Martin, Ruth Asawa, Lee Bontecou, Barbara Krueger, Yayoi Kusama and Louise Nevelson. My nephews were clearly intrigued.

My ultimate destination was a much smaller exhibit off of the rotunda by the African-American artist Simone Leigh (b. 1967, Chicago). In 2018, Leigh was awarded the Guggenheim’s Hugo Boss Prize—$100,00 and an exhibition at the museum. Leigh chose the exhibit title from a line in Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Born enslaved, Jacobs lived hidden under the rafters of her grandmother’s home for seven years to avoid being discovered by her master, an act of “defiant fortitude, which forged a loophole of retreat from an unjust reality.”

We entered a lofty room painted a calming gray, dominated by three female figures, heroic in scale and stance, positioned as if they are somehow communicating with each other despite the distance between them. 

Their bronze skin is patinated a glossy black. Two of the figures wear neatly cut sheaves of raffia which hang, in one case, like a skirt and, in the other case, a neck adornment. On one figure, a rustic terra cotta pipe evokes a torso; the other figure perches sphinx-like at the end of a corrugated tube. The third figure is entirely bronze, half-nude with a voluminous skirt and a handle emerging from one hip. 

The featureless faces, framed by elegant coronas of hair, lend additional gravitas to these great ladies, who call to mind ancient oracles. Do they see us? What prophecies do they hold in store for us? 

Perhaps the answer awaits at the back of the room, inside an enclosure made from decorative cement blocks. Entering this space, portentous sounds reach your ears as you approach a stoneware vessel with lovely braided coils.

Standing inside this mysterious temple, I peered out through the decorative blocks, where I could see my nephews discovering the magic of art, gawking, then ignoring, relenting and then investigating, finally posing proudly next to these wonderful pieces. 

“Loophole of Retreat” closes October 27; “Artistic License” remains on view through January 12, 2020. The Rye Arts Center will lead a tour of the Guggenheim Museum on October 4: www.ryeartscenter.org.

This article was originally published in The Rye Record.